Contextual alert bubbles for alert management

ABSTRACT

Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to alert bubbles for alert management and provide a novel and non-obvious method, system and computer program product for contextual alerts for alert management. In an embodiment of the invention, an alert management data processing system can be provided. The system can include an alert bubble configured to display alert text for an associated alert, and contextual information disposed in the alert bubble interface along with the alert text. In particular, the contextual information can provide context for the associated alert.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to the field of alert management forcomputing events and more particularly to user interface alert bubblesfor computing events.

2. Description of the Related Art

Alert management in a computing system refers to the alerting of an enduser through a user interface of a computing application of a computingevent. Computing applications and systems often encounter computingevents worth noting on the part of the end user. Historically, alertingan end user of a computing event required the suspension of an executingapplication and the presentation of text or a visual display notifyingthe end user of an alert condition. While effective in a computingenvironment in which only a single application can execute at a time,for multi-tasking environments, it is not reasonable to permit theinterruption of all applications to present an alert.

In traditional windowing operating systems that provide multi-taskingfunctionality, alert management is incorporated into the operatingsystem itself. In this regard, the operating system can provide anapplication programming interface (API) for invoking alerts through theoperating system user interface. Often in the form of an alert box or analert balloon, an alert can be provided by invoking a suitable operationthrough the alert management API. The alert itself, can be raised from atask bar or other similar such structure.

Alerts presented through the task bar of an operating system can sufficefor relatively few alerts within a period of time. Notwithstanding,alerts can become intrusive where many alerts issued from multipleapplications are presented repeatedly within the operating systeminterface. In the latter circumstance, end users may be distracted inaddressing each alert. To avoid the latter circumstance, advanced alertmanagement logic permits the configuration of the operating system toissue alerts only arising to a specified level of prioritization orimportance. An alternative solution is to disable alerts entirely. Inboth cases, end users may not view important alerts, or otherwise endusers may be compelled to view all alerts.

Advanced alert management systems rely upon statistical rating systemsto determine whether or not to display an alert. Specifically, eachalert can be assigned a rating based upon whether or not an end user hadpreviously designated the alert as one which ought to be suppressed orviewed. The preferences of an end user can change over time, however,and a static rating system can result in the unintended suppression ofimportant alerts. Likewise, a static rating system can result in theunintended viewing of unimportant alerts.

Alert bubbles, the user interface to an alert management system, appearand vanish according to user preferences intended to limit or at leastsomewhat control the interruptions caused by the appearance of an alert.The manual specification of preferences for alert bubble appearancesremains too coarse in application to be truly effective. In this regard,the information presented in an alert bubble generally includes onlysome text from the content of the alert itself possibly along with atime stamp. Users remain unaware by reference to the alert bubble itselfas to whether the underlying alert is of interest. Thus, alert bubblestypically lack enough context to allow the end user to decide whether ornot to permit the interruption proposed by the alert bubble.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art inrespect to alert bubbles for alert management and provide a novel andnon-obvious method, system and computer program product for contextualalerts for alert management. In an embodiment of the invention, an alertmanagement data processing system can be provided. The system caninclude an alert bubble configured to display alert text for anassociated alert, and contextual information disposed in the alertbubble interface along with the alert text. In particular, thecontextual information can provide context for the associated alert.

In one aspect of the embodiment, the system also can include a ratingcontrol disposed in the alert bubble. In another aspect of theembodiment, the system also can include a suspension control disposed inthe alert bubble. In either circumstance, the contextual information caninclude historical alert text, or a series of historical alert text forthe associated alert along with a scroll bar configured to providescrollable access to historical alert text in the series. In yet anotheraspect of the embodiment, the system yet further can include anactivatable context source control disposed in the alert bubble andconfigured upon activation to display context for a source of theassociated alert, for instance the activity from which the alert wastriggered, the location of the object from where inside an activity thealert had been triggered, the context of the object within the activity,the people associated with the activity, and the like. Finally, in evenyet another aspect of the embodiment, the system yet further can includean activatable context rules control disposed in the alert bubble andconfigured upon activation to display an applied rule permitting thealert bubble to display.

In another embodiment of the invention, an alert management method forproviding context to alert bubbles can be provided. The method caninclude receiving an alert notification for an associated alert,determining both alert text for the associated alert along with contextfor the alert, displaying both the alert text and the context in analert bubble, and subsequently vanishing the alert bubble. In one aspectof the embodiment, determining the context for the alert can includedetermining historical alert text for the alert. In another aspect ofthe embodiment, determining the context for the alert can includedetermining a series of historical alert text for the alert.

In yet another aspect of the embodiment, the method further can includeactivating a context source control in the alert bubble. In response tothe activation of the context source control, a display of a source ofthe alert can be provided. Finally, in even yet another aspect of theembodiment, the method further can include activating a context alertcontrol in the alert bubble. As before, in response to the activation ofthe context alert control, a display of a rule applied to the alert topermit a display of the alert bubble can be provided.

Additional aspects of the invention will be set forth in part in thedescription which follows, and in part will be obvious from thedescription, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The aspectsof the invention will be realized and attained by means of the elementsand combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims. It isto be understood that both the foregoing general description and thefollowing detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only andare not restrictive of the invention, as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute partof this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention andtogether with the description, serve to explain the principles of theinvention. The embodiments illustrated herein are presently preferred,it being understood, however, that the invention is not limited to theprecise arrangements and instrumentalities shown, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of an alert management dataprocessing system configured with contextual alert bubbles;

FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating a process for managing contextualalert bubble interactions in an alert management system; and,

FIGS. 3A through 3E, are pictorial illustrations of differentembodiments of a contextual alert bubble.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, system andcomputer program product for contextual alert bubbles for alertmanagement. In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention,contextual information can be provided for an alert within an alertbubble in addition to alert text for the alert bubble. Specifically, thealert source for the alert can be rendered accessible from within thealert bubble as can a reason that the alert bubble has been permitted toappear. Additionally, recent alerts can be ordered and renderedaccessible from within the alert bubble along with alert text for a mostrecent alert. In this way, the contextual information can provide an enduser viewing the alert bubble with a clear understanding of theimportance of an alert associated with the display of the alert bubble.

In further illustration, FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of an alertmanagement data processing system configured with contextual alertbubbles. The data processing system can include an alert server 120coupled to one or more application hosts 110 over a computercommunications network 130. Each of the application hosts 110 can hostone or more application views 150 to corresponding applications, such asthose hosted locally, or those provided by an application server in acomposite aggregation environment. Each of the application hosts 110further can include an alert monitor 140. The alert monitor 140 caninclude program code enabled to subscribe to one or more alerts in thealert server 120 on behalf of one or more of the applications associatedwith the application views 150. In one aspect of the invention, thesubscription can be that of a subscription of a really simplesyndication (RSS) compliant feed or an Atom compliant feed.

The alert server 120 can include both a set of filter rules 160 for oneor more alerts defining whether to suppress or display a respectiveunfiltered alert, and a data store of statistical ratings 170 forpreviously filtered alerts. Predictive alert filter logic 180 also canbe coupled to the alert server 120. The predictive alert filter logic180 can include program code enabled to train the prediction of an alertfilter for an unfiltered alert based upon the statistical ratings 170for previously filtered alerts. Utilizing the predictive alert filter180, it can be predicted whether or not to filter an unfiltered alertwithout exclusively relying upon the presence of a static filter rulefor the unfiltered alert. In fact, the ratings 170 produced by thepredictive alert filter 180 can be used to statistically determinewhether or not to suppress or display an alert even in the completeabsence of a static filter rule for the unfiltered alert.

In operation, the alert monitor 140 within an application host 110 cansubscribe to an alert on behalf of an application and corresponding oneof the application views 150 with the alert server 120. The alert server120, in turn, can process incoming alerts from the alert monitor 140 inorder to determine whether or not to render an alert for thecorresponding one of the application views 150 within a contextual alertbubble interface 300. To manage the receipt of a multiplicity of alerts,an alert queue (not shown) can be established to queue unfiltered alertsprior to adaptively managing the processing of the unfiltered alerts.

The contextual alert bubble interface 300 can provide a contextuallyrich alert bubble that can include not only alert text associated with areceived alert, but also contextual data helpful in providing contextfor the alert text. Examples include providing historical alert text,providing an indication of the source application or source data for thealert, and providing the particular one of the rules 160 giving rise tothe display of the contextual alert bubble interface 300. In moreparticular illustration, FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating a processfor providing contextual alert bubbles in an alert management system.

Beginning in block 210, an alert notification can be received for analert. In block 220, display rules can be retrieved for the alert todetermine whether or not to display the alert. In block 230, theretrieved rules can be applied to the alert. In decision block 240, ifit is determined not to display the alert based upon the application ofthe rules to the alert, in block 250 an alert bubble can be suppressedfrom display and the process can return to block 210. Otherwise, inblock 260, the context for the alert can be retrieved. In this regard,the context can include related past alerts, a source of the alert, orthe rule giving rise to the determination to display the alert.Thereafter, in block 270 the alert can be displayed along with theretrieved context. Finally, in block 280 the alert can vanish and theprocess can repeat through block 210.

Turning now to FIGS. 3A through 3E, multiple different exemplary alertbubbles are shown, each depicting a different arrangement ofincorporating contextual data with an alert. Considering first FIG. 3A,an alert bubble 300 is shown. The alert bubble 300 can include alerttext 310 associated with an alert. Additionally, rating controls 320 canbe disposed within the alert bubble 300 along with a suspension control330. The suspension control can provide a user interface for determiningwhen and for how long to suspend the display of alerts irrespective ofthe content of an alert, whereas rating controls 320 provide a userinterface through which an end user can rate an alert associated withthe alert bubble 300 for use by the alert server when consideringwhether or not to subsequently issue a similar alert.

Turning now to FIG. 3B, contextual information for an alert can beprovided within the alert bubble 300 along with the alert text 310. Thecontextual information can include, for example, historical alert text360 relating to a prior issued alert. Alternatively, as shown in FIG.3C, the contextual information can include a series of previouslyissued, historical alert text 360 viewable through the activation of ascroll bar 370 embedded in the alert bubble 300. Notably, the alertbubble 300 of FIG. 3A, FIG. 3B and FIG. 3C also can include a contextsource control 340 and a context rules control 350.

The context source control 340, when activated, can result in thedisplay of a source for the alert, whereas the context rules control350, when activated, can result in the display of a rule applied inallowing the display of the alert. Specifically, referring to FIG. 3E,an alert source pop-up 390 can be provided responsive to the activationof the context source control 340 and can provide a source indicationfor the alert associated with the alert text 310. Likewise, referring toFIG. 3D, an alert rules pop-up 380 can be provided responsive to theactivation of the context rules control 350 and can provide anindication of the rules applied when permitting the display of the alertassociated with the alert text 310.

Embodiments of the invention can take the form of an entirely hardwareembodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment containingboth hardware and software elements. In a preferred embodiment, theinvention is implemented in software, which includes but is not limitedto firmware, resident software, microcode, and the like. Furthermore,the invention can take the form of a computer program product accessiblefrom a computer-usable or computer-readable medium providing programcode for use by or in connection with a computer or any instructionexecution system.

For the purposes of this description, a computer-usable or computerreadable medium can be any apparatus that can contain, store,communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or inconnection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.The medium can be an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic,infrared, or semiconductor system (or apparatus or device) or apropagation medium. Examples of a computer-readable medium includememory devices, wherein the memory devices include a semiconductor orsolid state memory, magnetic tape, a removable computer diskette, arandom access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), a rigid magneticdisk and an optical disk. Current examples of optical disks includecompact disk-read only memory (CD-ROM), compact disk-read/write (CD-R/W)and DVD.

A data processing system suitable for storing and/or executing programcode will include at least one processor coupled directly or indirectlyto memory elements through a system bus. The memory elements can includelocal memory employed during actual execution of the program code, bulkstorage, and cache memories which provide temporary storage of at leastsome program code in order to reduce the number of times code must beretrieved from bulk storage during execution. Input/output or I/Odevices (including but not limited to keyboards, displays, pointingdevices, etc.) can be coupled to the system either directly or throughintervening I/O controllers. Network adapters may also be coupled to thesystem to enable the data processing system to become coupled to otherdata processing systems or remote printers or storage devices throughintervening private or public networks. Modems, cable modem and Ethernetcards are just a few of the currently available types of networkadapters.

We claim:
 1. An alert management data processing system comprising: analert server comprising a processor and memory and communicativelylinked to a plurality of application hosts over a computercommunications network, the alert server receiving alerts from differentalert monitors executing respective ones of the application hosts; acontextual alert bubble interface coupled to the alert server, theinterface producing an alert bubble configured to display alert text foran associated alert receiving from one of the different alert monitors;and, contextual information disposed in the alert bubble interface alongwith the alert text, the contextual information providing context forthe associated alert, the contextual information comprising historicalalert text of previously issued alerts.
 2. The system of claim 1,further comprising a rating control disposed in the alert bubble.
 3. Thesystem of claim 1, further comprising a suspension control disposed inthe alert bubble.
 4. The system of claim 1, further comprising: a seriesof historical alert text for the associated alert; and, a scroll barconfigured to provide scrollable access to historical alert text in theseries.
 5. The system of claim 1, further comprising an activatablecontext source control disposed in the alert bubble and configured uponactivation to display a source for the associated alert.
 6. The systemof claim 1, further comprising an activatable context rules controldisposed in the alert bubble and configured upon activation to displayan applied rule permitting the alert bubble to display.
 7. An alertmanagement method for providing context to alert bubbles, the methodcomprising: receiving an alert notification in an alert server with aprocessor and memory for an associated alert from an alert monitor fromover a computer communications network; determining both alert text forthe associated alert along with context for the alert the contextcomprising historical alert text of previously issued alerts; displayingboth the alert text and the context in an alert bubble; and,subsequently vanishing the alert bubble.
 8. The method of claim 7,wherein determining the context for the alert comprises determining aseries of historical alert text for the alert.
 9. The method of claim 7,further comprising: activating a context source control in the alertbubble; and, responsive to the activation of the context source control,popping-up a display of a source of the alert.
 10. The method of claim7, further comprising: activating a context alert control in the alertbubble; and, responsive to the activation of the context alert control,popping-up a display of a rule applied to the alert to permit a displayof the alert bubble.
 11. A computer program product comprising a memorydevice having computer usable program code for alert management forproviding context to alert bubbles, the computer program productincluding: computer usable program code for receiving an alertnotification for an associated alert; computer usable program code fordetermining both alert text for the associated alert along with contextfor the alert, the context comprising historical alert text ofpreviously issued alerts; computer usable program code for displayingboth the alert text and the context in an alert bubble; and, computerusable program code for subsequently vanishing the alert bubble.
 12. Thecomputer program product of claim 11, wherein the computer usableprogram code for determining the context for the alert comprisescomputer usable program code for determining a series of historicalalert text for the alert.
 13. The computer program product of claim 11,further comprising: computer usable program code for activating acontext source control in the alert bubble; and, computer usable programcode for, in response to the activation of the context source control,popping-up a display of a source of the alert.
 14. The computer programproduct of claim 11, further comprising: computer usable program codefor activating a context alert control in the alert bubble; and,computer usable program code for, in response to the activation of thecontext alert control, popping-up a display of a rule applied to thealert to permit a display of the alert bubble.